Capt. Marty Welch & the Gloucester Fishing Schooner Esperanto, Esperanto

Gloucester Fishing Schooner, "Esperanto" in 1920. Designed by Tom McManus, built by Tarr and James Shipbuilders Essex, Massachusetts, launched June 27, 1906. Schooner Esperanto won the first International Fisherman's Schooner Race in Halifax in 1920. On May 30, 1921, Esperanto struck a submerged wreck off Sable Island, and sank, undefeated.

Gloucester Fishing Schooner, "Esperanto", 1920

Captain "Marty" Welch

The schooner Esperanto was designed by Tom McManus of Boston, built by Tarr and James Shipbuilders of Essex, Massachusetts, and launched on June 27, 1906. Esperanto was 107 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 11 feet deep. Esperanto's gross weight was 140 tons, and her net weight was 91 tons. She was named for the international language of Esperanto, which means literally "the hoping one".

Despite the highly dangerous nature of fishing in the north Atlantic from sailing vessels, and the terrible death toll that resulted, there was only one life lost on Esperanto. On 17 March 1916, crewman John Burnham of Gloucester was knocked overboard by the main boom, and drowned.

On May 30, 1921, just months after winning the International Fisherman's Schooner Race in Halifax, Esperanto struck the submerged wreck of the "S. S. State of Virginia" off Sable Island, and sank. The crew manned Esperanto's dories and rowed away, and were eventually rescued. The skipper on that trip was Capt. Tom Benham. Isaiah Gosbee, the cook from the 1920 races, was among those aboard Esperanto that day.

Attempts were made to salvage Esperanto, and she was actually raised by pontoons several times, but each time she slipped beneath the waves again. After a month of attempts, the efforts to raise her had caused such damage that the salvage operation was reluctantly halted.